Construction has started on Mariano's in Elmhurst

Store is expected to be open by late spring or early summer

October 18, 2012|By Graydon Megan, Special to the Tribune

Construction has started at the site where Mariano's will be built in Elmhurst. (Graydon Megan, Chicago Tribune)

Over the noise of heavy equipment clearing the remains of a former car dealership, officials from the city of Elmhurst and Mariano's Fresh Market dug shovels into a pile of dirt to mark the official groundbreaking for Elmhurst's newest grocery store, expected to open by late spring or early summer.

The new market is the first project to be developed in the city's new North York Street tax increment financing district, approved by the City Council in September. The new 76,000-square-foot store will go up on the site of a closed former Ford dealership at the northwest corner of York Street and Industrial Lane.

"It's a great day in Elmhurst," Mayor Peter DiCianni said in his remarks Friday. "The creation of this new TIF district — these are all old tired properties that were vacant, jobless and just starving for redevelopment."

DiCianni said the new project would make Elmhurst a "destination community" and would generate not only property taxes but also "a ton of sales tax."

Mariano's Fresh Market is a brand of Milwaukee-based grocer Roundy's Inc.. Roundy's chairman and CEO Bob Mariano said Friday the new store is expected to bring a mix of 450 full- and part-time jobs to the area.

Mariano said there are now eight Mariano's Fresh Market stores in Illinois Several more are under construction, but the Elmhurst store will be the company's first in DuPage County.

The first Illinois Mariano's opened in Arlington Heights in 2010. The stores feature fresh high-quality foods and include such amenities as coffee shops, wood-fired pizza ovens and sit-down sushi bars.

Under a redevelopment agreement approved in September with the developer of the property, Abbott Land and Investment Corporation of Bartlett, the city will provide a total incentive of $1.25 million for the project. Of that, $625,000 will be paid when the store is opened. The remaining $625,000 is payable 180 days after opening.

The estimated costs for land acquisition, demolition and related expenses total nearly $5.7 million.